Riga Contemporary Art Museum, Riga, Latvia

Energising art

The existing power plant houses the educational, media-related and production sections of the museum. It houses a variety of experiences from video to research to public programs and performances, organized around the art without necessarily implying a direct confrontation with the art objects.
The exhibition space and the museum shop are located in an extended perimeter surrounding the existing power plan. A single continuous neutral space with a flat roof and a glass façade, embedding the old in the new making the powerplant work for the museum in a utilitarian rather than symbolic way.
The use of the existing power plant (also for all the required technical and logistical services) allows this space to be evacuated of everything that would interfere with the relation between the viewer and the art object.